April 8, 2012

Does a scientific understanding reduce aesthetics?

It usually takes very little time when in conversation with faitheists to be told that in comparison to their religious filter, my ‘worldview’ is too reductionist, that appreciating the method of science to reveal how the world really is harms my capacity to marvel, to appreciate the beauty to be found in it. I often feel this is exactly backwards but have a difficult time when in back-and-forth discussion over some truth claim about nature to explain why. Although I recall being enthralled by many excellent communicators of science like Carl Sagan and David Attenborough and Richard Dawkins in their many awe-inspiring video presentations, I offer up this simple yet elegant explanation by the physicist Richard Feynman for your consideration.

About this site

Questionable Motives is a site dedicated to raising important questions in the never-ending battle between rationality and superstition, offering commentary about topical issues, and addressing which of these motivations is truly being served.